The present invention relates to a device constituting a part of a band. The band or track being intended to be arranged around at least one wheel of a vehicle for cooperation with the ground. The band and track are used interchangeably from hereinafter.
The band is intended to be used among other things to increase the carrying capacity and/or the pull power of a vehicle. Furthermore, the band is intended to protect the wheel or a tire arranged around the wheel against mechanical damage.
Preferably the device is used to band wheels of forest machines, farming tractors, lorries or trucks, trailers, etc.
According to prior art the connection member is constituted by a separate part having the shape of a hook. Such a hook-shaped part is intended to be attached at the respective end of the actuating member or grouser in such a way that a portion of the hook-shaped part located opposite to the opening is attached at the actuating member or grouser. The actuating member and grouser are used interchangeably from hereinafter. When assembling a band or track two link elements are arranged around the body of the hook-shaped part, one link element on each side of the opening to the hook-shaped part. Subsequently, a support member is attached to the hook-shaped part. The attachment of the support member is done on one hand to the portion of the hook-shaped part located opposite to the opening, and on the other to the respective end of the hook-shaped part, the ends defining the opening. By that the opening to the hook-shaped part will be closed and, with a suitable design of the hook-shaped part, two new openings will be created between the hook-shaped part and the support member, the new openings accommodating a portion of the respective link element in case of a correctly holding of the link elements when attaching the support member.
The attachment of the hook-shaped part to the actuating member and the attachment of the support member to the hook-shaped part is conventionally done by means of welding. When attaching the support member to the hook-shaped part according to prior art, four welding seams are arranged, one seam at the respective end of the hook-shaped part, and two welding seams for attaching the support member to the portion of the hook-shaped part arranged opposite to the opening. The welding is time consuming and expensive and therefor it would be appreciated to achieve a device having as few welding seams required as possible while maintaining the functions of the device.
It would also be desirable to reduce the welding because the gases released to the surroundings during welding have negative effects on the environment.
The object of the present invention is to provide a device which eliminates the disadvantages mentioned above in such devices already known.
This object is according to the invention obtained by that at least one of the support members and one of the connection members are arranged in one piece while forming a combination element and by that the opening of the combination element ends in a surface directed towards the actuating member or grouser.
By forming a combination element instead of the support member and the hook-shaped part according to prior art, the number of welding seams required are reduced to the welding seams that are required for attaching the combination element at the actuating member only. Furthermore, by the fact that at least one of the openings for receiving a part of a link element ends in a surface of the combination element directed towards the actuating member, even the assembling of the device is simplified and the time required for the assembling is reduced.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, in which the respective support member and the respective connection member are arranged in one piece, said device enabling a safe connecting of the device to adjacent devices by that the device is enable to be connected to adjacent devices on each side of the wheel.
According to another preferred embodiment, in which the connecting of the two support members to each other is designed to enable application of the device to wheels with an arbitrary envelope surface shape, the band device is applicable on an arbitrary vehicle wheel with or without tires, i.e. the band requires not requiring any special design of the envelope surface of the wheel and thereby the device may be used to a large set of different vehicles with different characteristics and different wheel types with different envelope surface design or different design of accompanying tires.